Founded in Vancouver, Canada in December 2006 as a way of sharing our knowledge and enthusiasm for the fountain pen hobby with others.

Meetings are *usually* held on the third Thursday of each month (with the exception of December) from 6:00pm-8:30pm but please check our website for meeting place info/schedule changes/updates. Both modern and vintage writing equipment enthusiasts are welcome!

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

We had a pretty good turnout for the April meeting, held at Perks on April 18th (16 members in attendance on a *very* wet night) which featured calligraphy pens. Special thanks to Julienne for her calligraphy demos and to Greg for donating the door prize, a Sheaffer NoNonsense calligraphy set (won by Mike M).

Our May meeting will be held at Perks pen store (5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC) on Thursday May 16 at 6:30pm, and our theme will be Cross Fountain Pens.

Now, here are some photos I snapped last Thursday:

Julienne showing us some examples of the calligraphy she does with her Pilot Parallel fountain pen, a type of pen whose nib consists of two parallel plates. The nib widths range from very wide (1.5mm) to extremely wide (2.4mm and 3.8mm) to "paintbrush" width (a whopping 6.0mm wide!!)

Our members watch with rapt attention to Julienne's talk on calligraphy pens....

(similar photo as above, but without the annoying camera flash!)

Our affable host, Richard Clarke of Perks pen shop! If you are ever in the Vancouver area, make sure to stop by Perks (at 5844 Cambie Street) and see the nice selection of writing instruments, paper and inks for sale. Perks is open daily, except Mondays.

Some lovely handwriting done by Julienne with a modern flexible-nibbed fountain pen, the Noodler's "Ahab" (poem by Wm. Wordsworth :)

Anne brought in a wide selection of dip pen nibs along with her Speedball dip pen. These type of dip pens use India Ink, a type of drawing ink containing pigments and gum arabic that is *not* to be used in fountain pens (India Ink will clog fountain pens terribly and is a challenge to remove!)

New member Ken brought in a wide selection of writing instruments used by architects. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph them, but I did snap a photo of his "jumbo" fountain pen made by Tombow, as well as Louise's Parker Vector with calligraphy nib. The latter came as part of a set with several different calligraphy nib widths.

Some examples of the intricate Korean calligraphy done by Julienne on a special type of paper that felt a bit like papyrus to me.

Any of these look familiar?? The ever-popular Sheaffer NoNonsense calligraphy kit--various generations of the kits sold from the 1970s to the present day.

Friday, April 5, 2013

Date: Thursday April 18, 2013
Place: Perks pen store, 5844 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC (ie. the usual place)
Time: 6:30pm-8:30pm ("early birds" welcome at 6:00pm to chat before the meeting).
Theme: Calligraphy Pens!Please bring a few examples of your own calligraphy (if you have any), along with the pen(s) you use. The store isn't an ideal setting for elaborate calligraphy demonstrations, but I thought it would be nice to see what our fellow VPC members are using to create their own "beautiful handwriting". If you don't do calligraphy but have some pens that can be used for calligraphy (ie. pens with italic nibs, dip pens with flexy nibs, etc) please bring them along!
"Newest Acquisitions" is always our secondary topic, so if you have some cool new pen, ink, paper or pen-related accessory to show, please bring it along, too. No RSVPs necessary for any meeting held at Perks. Hope to see you there!